Kaia Gerber and Hayes Warner embrace ’80s excess in ‘The Shards’

‘The Shards’ turns 1981 Los Angeles into a high-gloss world of danger and desire

Healfromzero.com – FX’s “The Shards” places teenage ambition, privilege and fear in the same sun-drenched Los Angeles setting, where students at an exclusive prep school begin their final year under the shadow of a killer known as the Trawler. Set in 1981, the series treats fashion as more than background decoration: oversized shoulders, striking makeup and carefully styled hair are central to the characters’ identities.

The show is adapted from Bret Easton Ellis’ 2023 horror autofiction novel, with Ellis serving as co-creator and co-showrunner. Its narrator is Bret Easton Ellis, portrayed by Igby Rigney, an aspiring writer with an obsession for Joan Didion. As he moves through his senior year at Buckley prep school, he remains closely tied to a polished but unstable circle of friends.

That circle includes Susan Reynolds, played by Kaia Gerber, the driven class president whose immaculate public image is matched by her need for control. Hayes Warner plays Debbie Schaffer, Bret’s girlfriend, whose platinum-blond hair and vivid red lipstick evoke the visual language of Blondie. Susan is dating football standout Thom Wright, played by Graham Campbell, until the arrival of Robert Mallory, a new student portrayed by Homer Gere, unsettles the balance between both couples.

A murder mystery with maximalist style

Ryan Murphy’s series blends suspense with deliberately extravagant pop-cultural detail. Reports of teenagers disappearing coexist with urgent social concerns for its privileged young characters: securing a place on the Homecoming Court, maintaining status and appearing perfectly dressed at every turn.

The period setting extends well beyond the clothing. One midseason dance sequence has the principal cast moving to Rick James’ “Super Freak,” capturing the show’s embrace of an era known for bold music, heightened silhouettes and unapologetic excess. The result is a camp-inflected thriller that can be playful in tone while remaining exacting about its visual world.

Gerber credited costume designers Joshua Marsh and Lou Eyrich for making the period feel specific, pointing to their extensive mood boards and the vintage garments assembled for the production.

“The attention to detail is what makes it so incredible,”

Gerber said, adding:

“It’s such a specific moment in time.”

For viewers, that specificity helps clarify how the characters use appearance as armor. Their looks communicate class, confidence and conformity, even as the group’s private loyalties begin to fracture. In “The Shards,” a side part, a structured blazer or a carefully applied lip color can carry almost as much meaning as a conversation.

Kaia Gerber finds Susan’s conflict beneath the polish

Gerber was involved with the project early in its development and had already connected with the source material. Even so, she did not allow herself to assume the series would move forward until shortly before camera testing began.

“I was in such denial that it was going to happen,”

she said.

“I didn’t fully celebrate until we all got drinks a week before we did our camera tests.”

Across the nine-episode season, Susan’s perfectionism becomes a defining part of her character. She is an exemplary student who appears to have everything under control, but Gerber sees a more complicated emotional question within that precision: whether a life that appears ideal is necessarily satisfying.

“Just because something is on paper the perfect thing to do, does not necessarily mean it’s the thing that will make you feel fulfilled and happy,”

Gerber said.

“I relate to her journey in figuring out what her desires are outside of that pressure.”

The role also draws on Gerber’s familiarity with an industry in which visual perfection is often treated as a standard. Her runway poise lends itself naturally to Susan’s composed exterior, while the character’s deeper uncertainty gives the performance room to move beyond surface glamour.

On-set transformations that lingered after filming

Gerber and Warner developed a friendship during production, regularly spending more than two hours together in the makeup trailer before filming scenes. Those mornings helped turn them into the sharply defined students of Buckley prep school, with their styling serving as a key part of the transformation.

Some of the influence followed them beyond the set. Warner has recently worn shoulder-padded jackets, including pieces given to her from Gerber’s closet, while both actors have found themselves favoring side-parted hair. The visual language of 1981 proved unexpectedly easy to carry into the present.

Gerber said she appreciated the commitment that high school students of that period brought to getting ready, despite preferring a lower-maintenance routine in everyday life.

“Post-pandemic, effort is very minimal, which I love,”

she said.

“I don’t want to spend two hours on my hair for my everyday life, but I appreciated that teenagers in high school in 1981 were actually getting ready. We now have pimple patches on our faces.”

Gerber has also considered the literary tastes Susan might have had. A devoted reader herself and co-creator of Library Science, the book-club project launched in 2024, Gerber imagines Scott Spencer’s 1979 novel “Endless Love” on Susan’s nightstand. The turbulent romance between two teenagers would fit the emotional pressure surrounding Susan and Thom.

“The Shards” ultimately uses its lavish surface to sharpen the unease underneath. Every polished outfit and perfectly arranged hairstyle belongs to young people trying to preserve a sense of certainty while violence, jealousy and shifting desire threaten to pull their world apart.